Cursed (The Brookehaven Vampires #4) (44 page)

Before she headed back to try another dress, I showed her the bridesmaid dresses I had found. She claimed, in a rather snotty way, not to like either of my picks. She then headed back to her dressing room, obnoxious white dress balled up in her hands so she could walk.

After returning my picks to their rack, I sighed and flopped down in a folding chair beside Zoey.

Zoey gave me a pathetic excuse for a smile. “She’ll be fine, Laney. She’s just really stressed and she’s directing her frustration toward you.”

“Awesome,” I muttered. Wasn't I the lucky one?

After several more attempts, and with no luck at finding the
right dress, Kiera shooed Zoey and me toward the dressing rooms. She took a seat in one of the folding chairs to wait for us to try on her bridesmaid’s picks.

Torture. Nothing but pure torture.
That’s what this is!
I had wronged Kiera in some way, and she was paying me back with ugly, itchy dresses.

Thankfully, I
wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Zoey openly voiced her disgust about Kiera’s dress choices. She even refused to come out of her dressing room on dress three. I regretted doing so. We’re talking giant, poufy sleeves, and a
very
short skirt. Oh, and we mustn’t forget the hideous shade of pink.

I was so happy to put my jeans and T-shirt back on after that experience.

As we walked away from the dressing rooms with a very mopey Kiera, I was even more convinced that the extent of my wedding would include nothing but cupcakes, jeans, T-shirts, and flip-flops. I was even beginning to think cupcakes might be too much trouble.

Then we found it. Or should I say,
I
found it. It was
the
dress. It was elegant, not too showy, and it was
so
Kiera.

I stopped, grabbed Zoey’s hand, and silently pointed to the dress on a mannequin surrounded by racks of plastic covered dresses.

Zoey’s eyes lit up, and she grabbed Kiera’s arm. Kiera spun around like an angry dog. I’m sure my eyes were huge, because I was a little afraid of her at that moment. You know, because of the angry, tiny, bridezilla and all.

I quickly plastered a smile on my face and showed her the dress, pointing to it like a desperate idiot.

It was love at first sight.

“I have to try it on,” she said, a distant tone in her voice as she traced the beading across the bodice.

Zoey hurried off to find whoever it was she needed to find that would pull the dress off the mannequin or find its exact twin. She returned a few minutes later with a very friendly older woman who, just by looking at Kiera, knew the exact size of dress she would need.

The woman hurried off, and she returned a moment later with a bundle of white and plastic cradled in her arms. We followed her back to the dressing rooms where Zoey and I eagerly waited to see if the dress was just as perfect on Kiera as it
was on the mannequin.

Kiera stepped out of her dressing room with tears in her eyes and wearing a dress that had been made for her.

“It’s perfect,” she said. And it was. It was the perfect dress for Kiera. Everything about it was so her. The only problem was the length, and with the right shoes, that could be remedied. Or she could easily get it altered. My aunt had been good at stuff like that. She would have altered it for free…

“Laney found it,” Zoey said very quickly, as if this would redeem me for any wrongs I had ever done.

Well…it worked, because Kiera smiled at me and thanked me very exuberantly. Then she was busy with the woman who had helped her, telling the lady she would take the dress.

There was a lot of talking, some numbers were exchanged,
and a call was made to Kiera’s mom. I’m pretty sure a credit card number was exchanged so the woman, who had waited ever so patiently outside of Kiera’s dressing room, would put the dress aside until Kiera and her mother could meet her at her dress shop in town.

It was hard to convince Kiera to take off the dress. I didn’t blame her. It was perfect. For her.

She admired herself in the mirror for a long while, turning this way and that. It was undeniably
the
dress for Kiera.

The dress
had a sweetheart bodice that crisscrossed, making the fabric appear folded. Beading and rhinestones adorned the waist and trickled down onto the flared skirt. The train was long, but not excessively so. The dress was made from a beautiful white satin, and as I said, it was the perfect Kiera dress. I also found the heart-shaped bodice very appropriate considering the Valentine’s Day wedding.

Reluctantly, Kiera eventually returned to her dressing room and removed the dress. Now it was just a matter of finding dresses for Zoey and me. And shoes. We all needed shoes.

We were in high spirits as we made our way back to the entrance of the building. I was starving and the others said they could eat too, so we planned to head out for some food before hitting the mall in search of shoes and bridesmaid dresses.

Unfortunately
, our spirits were thwarted when Avery and a flock of her followers appeared.

Kiera hadn’t noticed, or
didn’t care if she had. She darted into a booth she had yet to hit. Zoey and I stopped, our eyes on Avery and her skanky friends.

“What are they doing here?” I asked, my voice dripping with distaste.

“Torment, I imagine,” Zoey answered. Zoey crossed her arms over her chest, her calf-length skirt swished over the tops of her boots as she shifted to get a better view of Avery. They were no longer friends. Zoey had made that clear when Avery had tried to bully Kiera a while back over us being in her house.

As we
were watching her, Avery’s eyes settled on us. This disgustingly evil smirk appeared on her hideously painted lips. She quickly gathered her followers from the booth that they were invading, and she turned, making her way through the crowd toward us, three of her trashiest friends in tow. That same nasty smile was still fixed in place.

A chill settled inside me as they drew closer.

Even from a distance, I could see that Avery wasn’t right. She didn’t look as bad as the last time I’d seen her, when her brother had been scolding her at the college, but she still looked bad, for Avery standards. She had to be on something. Perhaps drugs, magic, Oscar’s blood… Who knew! Whatever it was, it clearly didn’t agree with her.

She sauntered toward us in her usual hooker attire: clothes that were too short and too small and an enormous purse dangling from her forearm. I feared what she might have in that bag.

Her friends were dressed very much the same, and all four of them had their eyes on us.

My skin crawled. The back of my hand
burned.

“Would it be inappropriate to beat her head in right here amongst all the pretty
, white satin?” I asked, and not quietly.

Zoey gave me a look. I’m not quite sure what she was trying to convey with her look, but she definitely wasn’t telling me no. She also wasn’t telling me to go for it
, either.

Kiera was still busy filling out another raffle entry.

“Too much?” I questioned, looking over at Zoey standing right beside me, my own wicked smile in place.

“Yeah, just maybe.” She grinned back.

Avery was only a few feet away when Kiera was done filling out her entry form. She dropped her form into a gigantic champagne glass on the table at the booth, then she returned to Zoey and me still standing in the middle of the aisle, watching the whores approach.

“How’s your boyfriend?” Avery taunted as she and her friends stopped in front of us, just out of bitch-slapping distance. Her catlike eyes looked me up and down before they moved on to Kiera. “And Carter?” she asked. “Are they good? Are you keeping them both on short leashes so that they don’t stray? Again.” She sneered.

I really wanted to hit her. I mean,
REALLY
wanted to hit her.

“Let’s go,” Kiera said, ignoring Avery altogether.

Kiera took my hand and tugged me. I grabbed Zoey’s arm, and the three of us pushed through the crowd and past Avery and her friends. This just pissed Avery off, which was somewhat satisfying.

She called after us, making a scene and using words not even a drunken pirate would say.

Kiera clutched her wedding expo goodie bags to her chest as we hurried out of the building and to the car.

As we were driving away, we
caught a glimpse of Avery and her hooker friends being escorted from the building. That actually felt good. Really good.

Back in high spirits, we headed toward the main part of town.

We stopped by Shakes for food, but that wasn’t the main reason for going there. Kiera wanted to share her exciting news with Carter. He was working, on dish duty. He took a break soon after we had taken our seats and placed our orders.

We were sitting in a booth near the front widows
when Carter strolled out from the back of the diner. “Hey, ladies,” he said as he swung his body into the seat next to Kiera, across the table from Zoey and me. He flashed us a goofy grin as he rested his arm across the back of the seat, behind Kiera.

She turned to him, launching right into telling him all about finding the perfect dress, and how everything was falling into place. She even gave me credit for finding the dress.

Look at that, I was making my way back to the top of her friend list. Let’s just see if I can stay there.

Zoey bumped me with her elbow and smiled as I looked over at her, both of us knowing that by finding the dress,
I’d made up for all of my “wrongs.”

Having skipped lunch before heading out with Kiera and Zoey, I was quick to dive into my food when it arrived. Zoey didn’t eat much, and Kiera picked at her food while she continued to rattle on about her perfect wedding dress and other related nonsense.

Carter flashed Zoey and me another smile while he listened to his excited fiancée going on and on about all of the ideas she had gotten from the expo, all of the plans that needed immediately taken care of, and also that the wedding was only two months away. That last bit of information made Carter’s smile falter a little. No one seemed to notice except me.

I wondered if he was still having misgivings.

When Carter’s break was over, he headed back to his dishes and we finished our food. Well, I was already done. I had pretty much devoured my burger, fries, and chocolate shake while Kiera had rambled. So I waited for my friends to finish, which took longer than it should have because Kiera continued to go on and on about all of the things we needed to get done as soon as possible.

While waiting, I checked my phone and responded to a message from Oliver. He was home from work, and he wanted to know how much longer I
would to be. He also told me that he missed and loved me.

Smiling down at my phone, I responded:

Possibly until forever. I feel like I’m being held captive. We’re heading to the mall now. I’ll let you know when I’m on my way home. I love and miss you too!

He responded a second later:

Do you need to be rescued? ;)

A laugh escaped me. My friends eyed me curiously as they finished the last of their food.

Maybe ;)

My phone rang a moment later. I excused myself to answer it. It was Oliver, of course.

“So, do you want me to swoop in all sneaky like Batman? Or would you prefer the Superman hero approach? Your choice.” I could hear the humor in his tone.

Laughing, I chose Superman. Mostly because I had always favored Superman over Batman. Plus, I knew Superman was Oliver’s favorite.

“Good choice,” he said, the smile obvious in his voice.

We talked for a few minutes. I asked him about his first day back at work, which he had been supervised and on light duty. All that meant was that he was sitting at a desk near Felix.

He told me his day had been fine, and he’d just done busy work. Most of which he could’ve done from his laptop at home.

Kiera and Zoey were heading my way in the next moment. I reluctantly ended my call with my boyfriend so the girls and I could head to the mall before it got too late.

However, Kiera had other plans. She dragged us, well, she made me drive us to the church where her grandmother was insistent Kiera and Carter were to get married.

Carter had expressed to me that he was not comfortable with this part of the plan, but Carter also felt he had no say in any of the wedding plans. At times, I think he was good with that, but this particular detail seemed to rub him the wrong way. Felix had simply told him to suck it up and
deal with it because he was lucky Kiera would even have his sorry ass. At least that’s how Carter had relayed what Felix had said. Either way, it was pretty funny. The Felix part, not the part about being forced to marry Kiera in a fancy church.

Anyway, the whole thing
didn’t make much sense to me either. Kiera and her parents were not church-going or religious people. I had no clue about Kiera’s grandmother. But I assumed she must have been, considering her adamant wishes for my friends to be united in such a way.